As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The variety of hardware components that may be configured to operate as an information handling system are conventionally installed in dedicated information technology (IT) equipment space along with necessary support and backup systems. Such equipment space may include racks of information technology (IT) equipment. Support systems for the IT equipment may also be located in the equipment space, such as power subsystems and backup batteries.
All of this IT equipment in one confined space can generate significant heat. Further, IT equipment can be sensitive to high temperatures. For example, computer microprocessors have a maximum safe temperature for operation. Although that safe temperature may be a very high temperature in comparison to even the hottest of rooms, the processor relies on the room air to absorb heat from the processor during operation to keep the processor's temperature within a safe range. As the room temperature increases, the room air is less able to cool the processor. Eventually, the processor decreases its performance when the maximum temperature is reached. If the processor remains unable reduce temperature due to high room temperatures, the processor may shut down completely or become damaged by the high heat.
Thus, the equipment space also conventionally includes dedicated cooling units to maintain the room's temperature and humidity within safe ranges. Dedicated, or any other, cooling units can offset the heat generated by the high density of IT equipment in the confined space, and assist with maintaining safe operation of the processors. However, dedicated cooling units consume significant amounts of power. In a large data center, the power consumed by cooling systems may be a majority or even a large majority of total power consumed. This large power consumption is wasted, in part, because the dedicated cooling units are conventionally designed to operate at cooling rates that exceed that necessary to keep the IT equipment in safe operating ranges. This is particularly true when the IT equipment is operating at a low load condition and thus the needed cooling is low. With dedicated cooling units, conventionally the cooling units switch on and off as needed to maintain a desired temperature. These cooling units are sized to match a maximum load on the IT equipment. Thus, the cooling units provide far more cooling that is needed by the IT equipment.